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Medical students: integrated BSc

Chiara shines at Bright Club

2 December 2010

Illuminating STS to the public
eye

On 26th October, STS’s very own Chiara Ambrosio
took to the stage of a sold out Bloomsbury theatre to both entertain and
educate us through an original concoction of standup comedy and intellectual
edification. This is the premise of Bright Club, a collaborative effort from
comedians and academics at a fresh, fun approach at bringing science to
society. Having thoroughly enjoyed both Chiara’s performance and the entire
show myself, I took it upon myself to find out her side of the story:

AM: What made you
want to perform at Bright Club?

CA:I got an invitation from Steve Cross, head
of public engagement at UCL, who tries to connect academics with the people ‘out
there’. I was already involved in bringing philosophy to the public, and my fear
was that the public would be too scared to approach anything to do with
philosophy of science - so I thought comedy would be a good way to start!

AM: Why do you think people are scared of philosophy?

CA: I think there is
this idea that philosophy is just for a few people who are philosophically
minded, and that it’s a very difficult discipline (perhaps because some
philosophers think they need to make their theories very complicated) so the
public don’t bother to approach it at all. But philosophy is first and foremost
the pursuit of wisdom, and everybody wants to pursue wisdom at some point in
their life.

AM: Do you think Bright Club works?

CA: Yes - the fact
that there were 550 people and standing only tickets being sold on the night
means there is a lot of interest. It generates knowledge too - after one of my
previous performances somebody came to me and said ‘I had no idea of this
connection between art and non-Euclidean geometries, it’s very interesting. I
am going to look it up.’ I think comedy can work as a glue between science and
society that hasn’t yet been explored in all its possibilities.

AM: How did it feel
onstage?

CA: I was very scared.
I’m a very sociable person and have no problem lecturing in front of a lot of
people, but at conferences you can talk the technical jargon to impress the
audience; with Bright Club I was well aware there would be 550 people watching
me and I was scared because humour is culture dependent – what’s funny for me
as an Italian speaker might not have worked for an English audience.

AM: Did you have
lessons?

CA: The nice thing
about Bright Club is that we get training and advice on how to compose a comedy
set – comedy is about content but won’t pass unless you bring in a character,
and my Italian character was natural – a very extreme version of myself! So in
my performance I emphasised my strong accent and Italian characteristics.

AM: Would you do it
again?

CA: Oh yes. This set
was about how artists, particularly Picasso, used non-Euclidean geometry and
the concept of the fourth dimension in their art. Then there was a funny sex
thing linked to the fact that Picasso was a womaniser on top of the message I wanted
to convey to the public: even when we think about fine art, science becomes
very relevant. What I’d like to do in the next set is bring in some stronger
philosophical themes, which are very suitable for standup comedy.

AM: Did you, as an
academic, get on with the comedians?

CA: Some of the
comedians were really charming but there was one particular comedian who got on
my nerves, because he had a very naïve view of science. I told him off for
always talking about the history of the ‘winners’ – Einstein, Penrose – very
recognisable names. Why do we always make history about the winners when there
are a lot of other less known scientists who did a hell of a job but are
completely neglected by history of science?

AM: Who is the next
person in STS you think should perform at Bright
Club?

CA: Andy Gregory! He
has a fantastic sense of humour and I think he would do great onstage.

Bright club is a cheap, fun, intellectual evening out. The next
BC is on the 13th December, see www.brightclub.org for details.